Franklin v. State
Franklin v. State
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
delivered the opinion of the Court,
We granted review in this case to determine whether the Court of Appeals erred in applying a constitutional harm analysis to the trial court’s denial of a mistrial after one of the jurors revealed during trial that she knew the victim. We conclude that it did not.
Facts
During voir dire at B.J. Franklin’s trial, defense counsel asked the veniremembers if they knew any of the participants in the trial. None of the jurors indicated that they knew the participants. But when the State called its first witness — the victim— to the stand, Juror Spradlin notified the judge that she knew the victim because Spradlin was the assistant leader of the victim’s girl scout troop and that her daughter was also in that troop. Spradlin told the judge that she had not recognized the victim’s name during voir dire but recognized the victim when she saw her at trial. The trial judge asked Spradlin if she could listen to the evidence in the case and base her judgment just on what she heard from the stand. Spradlin stated that she could.
Defense counsel moved for a mistrial, stating that if he had known about the relationship between Spradlin and the victim, he would have exercised a peremptory challenge against Spradlin. Defense counsel also requested to ask Spradlin some additional questions about her relationship with the victim. When the trial judge refused to allow additional questioning, defense counsel objected that his client’s due process rights were being violated. He stated that he would have asked Spradlin about her relationship with the victim, how long the relationship lasted, whether or not she could set aside that relationship in deciding the case, and whether she would give more or less credence to the victim’s testimony and truthfulness due to the relationship. Defense counsel stated that the judge was preventing him from developing any testimony regarding potential biases. The judge overruled defense counsel’s objections and denied the motion for mistrial.
Procedural History
Franklin was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child, and the jury sentenced him to life in prison. Franklin appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in denying the motion for mistrial “based upon a juror’s failure to accurately answer questions during voir dire and also because he was unable to intelligently exercise his peremptory strikes as a result of that fail
We granted Franklin’s petition for discretionary review, which claimed along with three other grounds for review that the information Spradlin withheld was material and that he had preserved the issue for review. We concluded that Franklin had preserved error and that the information withheld by Spradlin was material.
On remand, the Court of Appeals reversed Franklin’s conviction. It determined that the error was of a constitutional dimension subject to harm analysis under Rule 44.2(a).
We then granted the State’s petition for discretionary review, which contends that the Court of Appeals erred in analyzing the improper limitation of defense questioning for harm under Rule 44.2(a) of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. The State also argues that the Court of Appeals erred in holding that the improper limitation of defense counsel questioning in this case was harmful where the record does not show that the jury was not fair and impartial.
Analysis
The State characterizes the error at issue here as follows: “Is there a constitutional right for counsel to ask questions that are relevant only the to the exercise of peremptory challenges?” The Court of Appeals rejected the characterization of the issue in those terms,
Under Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 44.2, the standard of review for errors of a constitutional dimension differs from the standard for other errors.
(a) Constitutional error. If the record in a criminal case reveals constitutional error that is subject to harmless error review, the court of appeals must reverse a judgment of conviction or punishment unless the court determines beyond a reasonable doubt that the error did not contribute to the conviction or punishment.
(b) Other errors. Any other error, defect, irregularity, or variance that does not affect substantial rights must be disregarded.10
Was a constitutional right affected by the juror’s withholding of material information during voir dire and the judge’s subsequent denial of a mistrial, compounded by the trial court’s refusal to allow defense counsel to ask questions to develop a record of actual bias or prejudice? We have said before that “[constitutional provisions bear on the selection of a jury for the trial of a criminal case.”
The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a trial before an impartial jury.
Here, Juror Spradlin withheld material information — that she was the victim’s assistant Girl Scout troop leader, and that her daughter was also in the same Girl Scout troop as the victim — that prevented Franklin not only from intelligently exercising his peremptory challenges but from exercising a challenge for cause as well. And, under Salazar, Spradlin’s statement to the trial judge that she could consider the evidence and base her decision on the evidence does not mean that Franklin was not deprived of an impartial jury.
And the error did not end there. The trial judge also deprived Franklin of the ability to develop evidence of bias or prejudice on the record. In this case, defense counsel told the court:
Had I been allowed to ask questions, I would have asked questions concerning the nature of the relationship with [the victim], how long it had lasted, whether or not she could set aside any of her relationship with [the victim], in sitting in judgment in this particular case, or whether she would tend to give more credence or less credence to [the victim]’s testimony and truthfulness due to that relationship.
Counsel explained that these questions were relevant to Spradlin’s “potential biases” and would have uncovered information relevant to a challenge for cause. But the trial court refused to allow counsel to ask these questions, which we interpreted as “a direct order not to ask the questions.”
Judge Cochran’s dissent argues that we should apply the federal standard that Franklin must show that Juror Sprad-lin had actual bias. Under the federal standard, the defendant must not only show that the juror failed to provide an honest answer to a material question during voir dire but also that a correct response would have provided the basis for a challenge for cause.
The State argues that, by analyzing the error for harm under Rule 44.2(a), the Court of Appeals has issued an opinion that conflicts with our reasoning in Jones v. State.
This case is also distinguishable from Johnson v. State,
The Court of Appeals found that because “a defendant’s constitutional right to counsel requires that counsel be permitted to question the members of the jury panel in order to intelligently exercise perempto
Judge Keller’s dissent argues that our harm analysis in this case conflicts with our recent decision in Hawkins v. State.
Judge Keller’s dissent also asserts that our “only real argument for finding a violation of the right to an impartial jury is that there does not exist enough information to determine whether the juror is biased” and that we do not “explain why, from a constitutional perspective, it is not enough that the trial court conducted its own inquiry.”
Judge Keller further states that if we are “contending that there is a constitutional basis for requiring a trial court to allow the parties to question the juror,
In its second ground for review, the State argues that the Court of Appeals erred in finding harmful error where the record does not show that the jury was not fair and impartial. The State bases its argument on the premise that the proper standard for evaluating the harm is under Rule 44.2(b), and because Franklin was not denied a fair and impartial jury, the error is harmless. But under Rule 44.2(a), the proper standard of harm in this case, “the court of appeals must reverse a judgment of conviction or punishment unless the court determines beyond a reasonable doubt that the error did not contribute to the conviction or punishment.”
Conclusion
We find that the Court of Appeals did not err in analyzing the trial judge’s denial of a mistrial based on a juror’s withholding of material information under Rule 44.2(a).
. Franklin v. State, 986 S.W.2d 349, 352 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1999).
. Franklin v. State, 12 S.W.3d 473, 479 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000).
. Id.
. Franklin v. State, 23 S.W.3d 81, 83 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2000); Tex.R.App. P. 44.2(a).
. Franklin, 23 S.W.3d at 83.
. Id.
.Id. at 82-83.
. Tex.R.App. P. 44.2.
. Id.
. Jones v. State, 982 S.W.2d 386, 391 (Tex.Crim.App. 1998).
. Id.
. U.S. Const, amend. VI.
. Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. 719, 729, 112 S.Ct. 2222, 119 L.Ed.2d 492 (1992).
. Raby v. State, 970 S.W.2d 1, 10 (Tex.Crim.App. 1998); Linnell v. State, 935 S.W.2d 426, 428 (Tex.Crim.App. 1996) (citing Runfio v. State, 808 S.W.2d 482, 485 (Tex.Crim.App. 1991)); Dinkins v. State, 894 S.W.2d 330, 344-345 (Tex.Crim.App. 1995); Burkett v. State, 516 S.W.2d 147, 148 (Tex.Crim.App. 1974); Hernandez v. State, 508 S.W.2d 853, 854 (Tex.Crim.App. 1974); McCarter v. State, 837 S.W.2d 117, 119 (Tex.Crim.App. 1992); Naugle v. State, 118 Tex.Crim. 566, 568, 40 S.W.2d 92, 94 (1931); see also Janecka v. State, 937 S.W.2d 456, 471 (Tex.Crim.App. 1996); Smith v. State, 676 S.W.2d 379, 384 (Tex.Crim.App. 1984); Mathis v. State, 167 Tex.Crim. 627, 628, 322 S.W.2d 629, 631 (1959).
. Salazar v. State, 562 S.W.2d 480, 482 (Tex.Crim.App. 1978).
. Id.
. Franklin, 12 S.W.3d at 478.
. See Salazar, 562 S.W.2d at 482.
. Franklin, 12 S.W.3d at 477.
.McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U.S. 548, 556, 104 S.Ct. 845, 78 L.Ed.2d 663 (1984).
. See Jones v. State, 596 S.W.2d 134, 137 (Tex.Crim.App. 1980).
. Robert G. Loewy, Note: When Jurors Lie: Differing Standards for New Trials, 22 Am. J.Crim. L. 733, 743 (1995).
. Jones v. State, 982 S.W.2d 386 (Tex.Crim.App. 1998).
. Id. at 391.
. Id.
. Id. at 393.
. Johnson v. State, 43 S.W.3d 1 (Tex.Crim.App. 2001).
. Id. at 2; Tex.R.App. P. 44.2(b).
. See Taylor v. State, 109 S.W.3d 443, 451-52 (Tex.Crim.App. 2003).
. Franklin, 23 S.W.3d at 83.
. Howard v. State, 941 S.W.2d 102, 108 (Tex.Crim.App. 1996).
. Hawkins v. State, 135 S.W.3d 72, 76-77 (Tex.Crim.App. 2004).
. Id.
.Id.
. Franklin v. State, 12 S.W.3d 473, 478-79 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000).
. Post, op. at 361.
. Id. at 361.
. See Jones v. State, 596 S.W.2d 134, 137 (Tex.Crim.App. 1980).
. Post, op. at 361.
. TexR.App. P. 44.2(a).
. Franklin, 23 S.W.3d at 83.
. Tex.R.App. P. 44.2(a).
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
The Court characterizes the issue as “what standard of harm should be applied to the trial judge’s denial of a mistrial” based on the juror’s withholding of material information.
The Court contends that “[w]e already concluded in Franklin I
On remand from Franklin I, the Court of Appeals confused the issue of what error was being addressed. That court indicated that the error was not simply the refusal to permit questioning at trial but also somehow involved counsel’s inability to exercise for cause and peremptory strikes at voir dire:
The State argues that the error before this Court is solely the trial court’s refusal to permit counsel to question the juror. This view is not supported either by our initial opinion or by the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals. In the Court of Criminal Appeal’s opinion, it first determined that error had been preserved for review — that error being the refusal to permit questioning of the juror. The Court of Criminal Appeals then discussed the question of whether the information withheld by the juror during voir dire was material. If that information was material, then counsel was unable, through no fault of his own, to intelligently exercise his peremptory strikes or to request a strike for cause on this juror. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the “assistance of counsel” and a trial before “an impartial jury.” Part of this constitutional guarantee is an adequate voir dire to identify unqualified jurors. Essential to this guarantee is the right to question venire members in order to intelligently exercise peremptory challenges and challenges for cause. In other words, a defendant’s constitutional right to counsel requires that counsel be permitted to question the members of the jury panel in order
Although the Court of Appeals contended that its more expansive view of the nature of the error was supported by its own and our opinions, as discussed above, neither of those previous opinions isolated any error other than the refusal to permit questioning at trial. The lower court apparently interpreted the “materiality” discussion as invoking its more expansive view of error, but the lower court’s prior opinion had in fact held that materiality could not be determined due to an inadequate record,
The upshot of all this is that the exact identity of the error at issue remains unresolved. Originally, the isolated error was the refusal to permit the defense to question the juror at trial. On remand, the Court of Appeals suggested that the error was the deprivation of appellant’s right to intelligently exercise peremptory and for cause challenges. For the first time, the Court characterizes the error as the failure to grant a mistrial. The Court may be correct in recasting the error issue at this late stage, just as we did in Hawkins, but then the remaining discussion of error and harm must be recast as well. It is inconsistent to recast the error for the first time and then claim that the error issue was resolved in a prior decision.
And the Court’s failure to recast the issues under Hawkins creates problems with its analysis regarding which harm standard to apply. The Court suggests that a constitutional standard of harm applies in the present context because appellant was unable to ask questions in voir dire in order to intelligently exercise for cause and peremptory challenges, and this denied him the right to trial by a fair and impartial jury. But the right to intelligently exercise challenges is a separate right from the right to an impartial jury. I do not see any necessary connection between the two.
If the juror were biased and could not set that bias aside, then the right to an impartial jury would be undermined. But whether appellant would have exercised a peremptory challenge, or raised a challenge for cause, do not by themselves establish that the juror in question was biased. Nor was there any evidence in this record that she was biased. In fact, there was evidence, from the juror’s response to the trial court’s questioning, that she was not biased. The Court does not adequately explain why we should override the trial court’s determination that the juror was not biased when there is evidence in the record to support that ruling. It is true that we stated in Salazar that a juror’s statement that the information withheld would not affect his verdict is not disposi-tive when the information is material.
Moreover, in Salazar, upon which the Court relies, it is clear that the juror in
The Court’s only real argument for finding a violation of the right to an impartial jury is that there does not exist enough information to determine whether the juror is biased. But the Court does not explain how it arrives at that conclusion. The trial court questioned the juror and received her verbal assurance of impartiality. The Court has not explained how the trial court’s questioning was deficient. The Court says that appellant should not be held to the burden of proving bias or prejudice when he was not allowed to ask questions, but the Court does not explain why, from a constitutional perspective, it is not enough that the trial court conducted its own inquiry. In fact, that’s what happened in Salazar: the trial court conducted its own inquiry without the assistance of the parties.
Arguably, a right of defense counsel to question the juror stems from the right to make a bill of exceptions, but that right appears to stem from common law and court rules rather than the United States or Texas constitutions.
Perhaps the Court is echoing the Court of Appeals’s conclusion that the error in this case is the deprivation of the intelligent use of strikes. If that were the error, however, the logical place for that error to have occurred would be during voir dire. But the trial court committed no such error in voir dire. To find such an error in voir dire, we would have to make an exception to the general principle, discussed in Hawkins, that error occurs only when the trial court makes a mistake and hold that a juror’s conduct could, by itself, create error to be complained about on appeal. Moreover, to help appellant in this case, we would have to further hold that such error could occur even when the juror acted in good faith and did not intentionally withhold information. I see no persuasive reason to make such an exception to Hawkins.
I respectfully dissent.
. Court’s op. at 361.
. 135 S.W.3d at 76-77.
. Id. at 77.
. Id.
. Franklin v. State, 12 S.W.3d 473 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000).
. Court’s op. at 356-57.
. Franklin, 12 S.W.3d at 479 ("The trial court erred in denying appellant the opportunity to ask questions of Juror Spradlin.’’); see also Franklin v. State, 986 S.W.2d 349, 353 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1999).
. Franklin, 986 S.W.2d at 353-354.
. Franklin, 12 S.W.3d at 477.
. Franklin v. State, 23 S.W.3d 81, 83 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2000) (emphasis in original; internal citations omitted).
. See above discussion.
. Id. at 482.
. Quinn v. State, 958 S.W.2d 395, 402 (Tex.Crim.App. 1997); see also Hughes v. State, 24 S.W.3d 833, 842 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000).
. 562 S.W.2d at 482 ("It is clear that juror Wooley was in violation of his oath when he withheld information during voir dire”).
. Franklin, 12 S.W.3d at 478.
. Id.
. Salazar v. State, 562 S.W.2d 480, 481-482 (Tex.Crim.App. 1978).
. See Spence v. State, 758 S.W.2d 597, 599-600 (Tex.Crim.App. 1988), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 932, 111 S.Ct. 1339, 113 L.Ed.2d 271 (1991).
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting in which MEYERS, J., joined.
I respectfully dissent.
The error that we have already found in this case was the trial court’s failure to permit further questioning of juror Sprad-lin concerning any actual bias she might harbor against appellant. The constitutional question, however, is whether appellant’s Sixth Amendment right to trial by an impartial jury was violated. If Ms.
I.
During voir dire in this case, the State asked the jury panel if anyone knew C.N.T., the complainant in this aggravated sexual assault of a child trial. No one said they did. Appellant did not inquire further and he did not ask C.N.T. to enter the courtroom or stand up so the jury panel could see her in person. After the jury was empaneled, the State called C.N.T. to the witness stand. As soon as C.N.T. took the witness stand, Juror Spradlin passed a note to the judge stating that she now recognized C.N.T. As we stated in our original opinion in this case:
Apparently, Juror Spradlin had a daughter in the same girl scout troop as C.N.T., and Juror Spradlin was that girl scout troop’s assistant leader. She had not recognized the name, but knew C.N.T. when she saw her. The trial court judge asked Juror Spradlin if she could listen to the evidence in the case and base her judgment just on what she heard from the stand. Juror Spradlin stated that she could.1
Appellant’s counsel immediately moved for a mistrial. The trial judge refused that request, stating: “I think it was obvious from seeing her that she had no idea who this witness was until she saw her come into the courtroom.” Appellant then requested an opportunity to question Ms. Spradlin further about her relationship with C.N.T. Again the trial judge refused: “I’m not going to permit that because you had ample opportunity on voir dire.” The State argued that appellant had failed to show any harm because there was no indication that Juror Spradlin would be unfair or partial. Appellant objected again, observing that “[t]he reason that there is no evidence of any potential biases, of course, the Court is preventing me from further developing that testimony from that particular juror once that relationship has been established.” Appellant’s counsel then set out on the record the questions he would have asked Juror Spradlin about her relationship with C.N.T. had he been permitted to do so. These were all appropriate questions and appellant should have been allowed to ask them.
The trial court erred in refusing to allow further inquiry into the juror’s potential bias. In our prior opinion, we held that appellant properly preserved this error and remanded the case for the court of appeals to conduct a harm analysis.
It seems to me that the problem here has nothing to do with voir dire and nothing to do with the exercise of peremptory challenges. Voir dire was over when this problem surfaced. Instead, the issue is whether a biased juror sat on appellant’s jury. This scenario and the constitutional issue it presents are very familiar to the federal courts. Therefore, I think that we should follow federal precedent in dealing with this constitutional issue. Under federal precedent, the proper remedy is to remand the ease to the trial court for a hearing.
II.
The Sixth Amendment guarantees the accused the right to a trial by an impartial jury.
Although there are a few exceptional circumstances in which “implied bias” may be presumed as a matter of law,
To obtain a new trial for actual juror bias, a defendant must show: 1) that a juror failed to answer honestly a material question during voir dire; and 2) that a correct response would have provided the basis for a challenge for cause.
Under the Supreme Court’s constitutional standard:
A juror \.. need not be disqualified merely because he or she knows the defendant or has some knowledge about the case. A defendant must show that the knowledge somehow impaired — or had the ineluctable tendency to impair— the juror’s neutrality. That is to say, the defendant must show actual, or at least likely, prejudice stemming from the participation of the allegedly biased juror.15
The mere fact that a juror was the former “paramour” of the defendant’s son was insufficient to show actual prejudice;
To invalidate the result of a three-week trial because of a juror’s mistaken, though honest response to a question, is to insist on something closer to perfection than our judicial system can be expected to give. A trial represents an important investment of private and social resources, and it ill serves the important end of finality to wipe the slate clean simply to recreate the peremptory challenge process because counsel lacked an item of information which objectively he should have obtained from a juror on voir dire examination.20
In this case, there is not a scintilla of suggestion that Ms. Spradlin “withheld” any information. Indeed, the moment she saw C.N.T. in person, she immediately informed the trial judge that she did, in fact, recognize the child, though she had not recognized the name. Surely this is a common phenomenon to us all. To guard against this problem, appellant could easily have asked C.N.T. and all of the witnesses to stand up in the courtroom and then ask the venire members if they recognized any of them. This is frequently done in Texas courtrooms. Appellant should not be punished for his failure to perform this simple voir dire exercise,
Appellant, the court of appeals, and the majority cast this constitutional claim as one involving the right to make intelligent peremptory challenges. But there is no federal constitutional right to peremptory challenges.
Furthermore, there are numerous federal cases, including McDonough itself, addressing the appropriate remedy when the trial court has not provided an adequate forum to develop the factual basis for the claim of a biased juror. That remedy is to remand the case to the trial court to give the defendant an opportunity to éstablish his claim of a biased juror.
I respectfully dissent to the majority’s failure to follow federal constitutional law and procedure on appellant’s federal constitutional claim.
. Franklin v. State, 12 S.W.3d 473, 476 (Tex. Crim.App. 2000).
. Id. at 479.
. Franklin v. State, 23 S.W.3d 81, 83 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2000).
. Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209, 215, 102 S.Ct. 940, 71 L.Ed.2d 78 (1982) (“[tjhis Court has long held that the remedy for allegations of juror partiality is a hearing in which the defendant has the opportunity to prove actual bias’’); McDonough Power Equip., Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U.S. 548, 551-52 & n. 3, 104 S.Ct. 845, 78 L.Ed.2d 663 (1984) (stating that proper resolution of whether juror’s "unrevealed information" during voir dire showed juror bias is to remand case to district court to conduct a hearing to decide that factual question); Remmer v. United States, 347 U.S. 227, 230, 74 S.Ct. 450, 98 L.Ed. 654 (1954) (remanding ,case to district court to determine whether attempted bribery of juror influenced him and made him prejudiced); Solis v. Cockrell, 342 F.3d 392, 399 (5th Cir. 2003) (post-conviction hearing conducted by trial court which turned up no prejudice toward defendant by juror protected habeas applicant’s right to trial by impartial jury); Tinsley v. Borg, 895 F.2d 520, 524-26 (9th Cir. 1990) (citing Phillips and noting that post-trial hearing is appropriate mechanism to resolve constitutional claims of juror bias when juror fails to disclose material information during voir dire).
. U.S. Const, amend. VI (”[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury”).
. Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 722, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961) ("the right to jury trial guarantees to the criminally accused a fair trial by a panel of impartial, ‘indifferent’ jurors”).
. United States v. Wood, 299 U.S. 123, 134, 57 S.Ct. 177, 81 L.Ed. 78 (1936).
. See Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209, 222-23, 102 S.Ct. 940, 71 L.Ed.2d 78 (1982) (O'Connor, J., concurring) (noting that "there are some extreme situations that would justify a finding of implied bias,” including "a revelation that the juror is an actual employee of the prosecuting agency, that the juror is a close relative of one of the participants in the trial or the criminal transaction, or that the juror was a witness or somehow involved in the criminal transaction”); see also Solis v. Cockrell, 342 F.3d 392, 395-98 (5th Cir. 2003) (citing cases and analyzing doctrine of "implied” or "presumed” juror bias when juror fails to disclose material information during voir dire; rejecting habeas applicant’s claim of implied bias when juror failed to disclose that he lived not more than two blocks from defendant, had known him and his family for more than twenty years, and knew that defendant and his brothers “break into people’s homes”). In Solis, the Fifth Circuit noted
. Appellant’s argument suggests that this is an instance of "implied” or "presumed” juror bias. He states: "Except immediate family members, one could hardly imagine a stronger relationship than that which exists between a girl scout and her troop leader.” I cannot accept that premise, but even so, the record in this case indicates that Ms. Spradlin did not have a close relationship with C.N.T. because she did not even recognize her name. Appellant provides no legal support for his argument that being a crime victim’s assistant girl scout leader raises "implied” or "presumed” bias.
. McDonough, 464 U.S. at 556, 104 S.Ct. 845; United States v. Bishop, 264 F.3d 535, 554 (2001) ("moving party must demonstrate that a juror failed to answer a material voir dire question honestly, and that a correct response would have been a valid basis for a challenge for cause’’); United States v. Wilson, 116 F.3d 1066, 1086 (5th Cir. 1997) ("[glenerally, to obtain a new trial for jury bias, a party must demonstrate: (1) that a juror failed to answer honestly a material question during voir dire, and (2) that a correct response would have provided the basis for a successful challenge for cause”); Dennis v. Mitchell, 354 F.3d 511, 520-21 (6th Cir. 2003) (setting out McDonough test).
. McDonough, 464 U.S. at 556, 104 S.Ct. 845; Dennis v. Mitchell, 354 F.3d at 520.
. McDonough, 464 U.S. at 556, 104 S.Ct. 845.
. Bishop, 264 F.3d at 555.
. Id.
. Neron v. Tierney, 841 F.2d 1197, 1206 (1st Cir. 1988).
. Id. at 1203.
. Wilson, 116 F.3d at 1086; see also Montoya v. Scott, 65 F.3d 405, 420 (5th Cir. 1995) (juror who did not respond to voir dire question of whether she knew victim when in fact
We have found no published opinion upholding a challenge for cause based on a venireperson’s mere acquaintance with the victim of the crime for which the defendant has been charged, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has squarely held that the mere fact that a juror knows the victim is not sufficient basis for disqualification. See Anderson v. State, 633 S.W.2d 851, 853 (Tex.Crim.App. 1982). In Anderson, the juror was a school teacher at the school where the rape at issue occurred and knew the victim, who attended the school, and several of the State's witnesses, but did not know the defendant. The court stated; "Although such knowledge [of the victim] may be the source of an existing bias, 'the mere fact that a juror knows, or is a neighbor, or an intimate acquaintance of, and on friendly relations with, one of the parties to a suit, is not sufficient basis for disqualification.’ ”
. United States v. Uribe, 890 F.2d 554, 561 (1st Cir. 1989).
. Bishop, 264 F.3d at 556 (juror offered a "plausible explanation for her failure to answer the juror questionnaire and voir dire inquiries regarding her criminal history accurately”).
. McDonough, 464 U.S. at 555, 104 S.Ct. 845.
. But see Wilson, 116 F.3d at 1086 (defendant bears burden of proving that the belated discovery of juror’s friendship with the victim was not due to lack of diligence on his part); cf. Neron, 841 F.2d at 1202 n. 6 (noting that allegations of juror bias "which are frivolous — that is, entirely conclusory or conjectural, contradicted by the record, inherently incredible, patently false, or obviously inconsequential — do not trigger any duty of inquiry [by the trial court] and do not require that a hearing be held”).
.Georgia v. McCollum, 505 U.S. 42, 57, 112 S.Ct. 2348, 120 L.Ed.2d 33 (1992) ("it is important to recall that peremptory challenges are not constitutionally protected fundamental rights; rather, they are but one state-created means to the constitutional end of an impartial jury and a fair trial. This Court repeatedly has stated that the right to a peremptory challenge may be withheld altogether without impairing the constitutional guarantee of an impartial jury and a fair trial”); Frazier v. United States, 335 U.S. 497, 505, 69 S.Ct. 201, 93 L.Ed. 187 (1948) (stating that the right to peremptory challenges "is given in aid of the patty's interest to secure a fair and impartial jury, not for creating ground to claim partiality which but for its exercise would not exist”).
. In Jones v. State, 596 S.W.2d 134 (Tex. Crim.App. 1980), this Court did not address any question of constitutional error or harm because the defendant failed to ask any specific questions designed to elicit the fact that the juror had once been employed as a jail guard. Id. at 136. Because the defendant did not show that the juror intentionally withheld material information, he failed to show any "misconduct that would warrant reversal.” Id. at 137.
. See supra note 4.
Reference
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